It was also another game where they did exactly that.
You might consider it lamentable that, 64 games into this season, the Canadiens are still hoping some combination can give them a viable second line. With Patrik Laine missing a second consecutive game due to flu symptoms and Kirby Dach nursing a season-ending knee injury since Game 57, that task fell to Alex Newhook, Joshua Roy and Brendan Gallagher in Tuesday’s must-win game, and they weren’t up to it.
But you know who wasn’t depending on Newhook, Roy and Gallagher to score the goals in this must-win against the Canucks? Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky, who each had one and combined for seven points to deliver a 4-2 result.
“It wasn’t just what they did offensively,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis afterward, and he was right.
These three carried the Canadiens at both ends of the ice, tilting the game towards the Canucks’ end with total commitment away from the puck and timely precision with it on their sticks. They had a 26-9 edge in shot attempts at five-on-five, they clawed back momentum immediately after it swung Vancouver’s way, and, in the process, they took much more than confidence with them out of Rogers Arena.
The experience Suzuki, Slafkovsky and Caufield are gaining right now is providing hope this team will deliver on its future promise of becoming a perennial contender. Delivering in the clutch as they are is keeping the Canadiens in the playoff chase, and they wouldn’t trade these moments for anything.
“That’s what you want,” said Caufield, who scored his 32nd goal of the season to put the Canadiens up 3-0 in the ninth minute of the second period of Tueday’s game. “The way we’re progressing as a team, as a group right now, it’s not going to be easy every night. Different guys are going to have to step up and are going to have to get it done. But the three of us, as a line, depend on each other and have to bring it consistently.”
It’s what the Canadiens needed for this season: For their young core members to be tested under this type of pressure.
To see Suzuki acing that test every night is such a promising development for the team’s future. With the season on the line coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off, he has put up five goals and 10 assists to help the Canadiens collect 13 of 16 points over their last eight games, and he now has 20 goals and 67 points and is on pace for another career year.
To think Suzuki has four years left under contract after this one, on a deal that pays him just $7.87 million per, must be so comforting to Canadiens management.
They have Caufield locked up for five more after this one at $7.85 million per and watching him do what he’s been doing must feel reassuring, too. The 24-year-old has scored six goals and posted nine points over the post-4 Nations stretch and, like Suzuki, has won battles all over the ice to tilt the game’s toughest matchup in his line’s favour night after night.
It was a tough start to the season for Slafkovsky, but he’s making that feel like a distant memory with what he’s been doing of late.
Slafkovsky had a goal and two assists, four shots on net and many more hits than the one he was credited for against the Canucks — and the Canadiens have to be thrilled his eight-year, $60.8-million contract doesn’t even kick in until next season.
The first overall pick in 2022 has gained 181 games of NHL experience before his 21st birthday, but what he’s taken from the last eight under the pressure of having to consistently match Suzuki and Caufield to deliver what the Canadiens need is so valuable in his development process.
“I’m learning how to stay calm in those situations,” Slafkovsky said. “Learning not to stress if it doesn’t go our way on a shift. Have to stay on top of our game, try to do the little things and not try to make such big plays for a second, and then the big plays open up and we can score.”
Lane Hutson is doing this every night, too, and he is also delivering.
He may not have had a point in Vancouver, but he leads all rookies in scoring this season with 49, and he and partner Jayden Struble were big factors in the win.
So was Samuel Montembeault, who came up with 29 saves against the Canucks.
Jake Evans’s line with Joel Armia and Emil Heineman had a decent game, but it missed its best opportunities to provide support to the Suzuki line.
It was a tougher night for Christian Dvorak’s line with Josh Anderson and Michael Pezzetta, who combined for only one shot attempt at five-on-five while giving up six.
Perhaps Newhook, Roy and Gallagher didn’t contribute secondary scoring, but at least they showed some cohesion in their first game as a line, and perhaps that can spring them into Wednesday’s game against the Seattle Kraken.
We don’t know if Suzuki’s line will deliver as it did in Vancouver, but they’re going into that game expecting to.
The Canadiens are two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets and five points behind the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference wild-card race, and no three players on their team appear more determined to help them catch up.
